America’s Debt Just Hit $40 Trillion

The United States crossed a quite sobering threshold on Wednesday, as the national debt has officially surpassed $40 trillion. 

Yet even as the bill for decades of reckless spending, borrowing, and political cowardice continues to pile up, there is little sign that Americans, or their elected leaders, are willing to abandon the policies that created the crisis in the first place.

$40,047,425,768,420.22 (+) #NationalDebt

— National Debt Tweets (@NationalDebt) August 19, 2026

In the mid-1990s the national debt was roughly $5 trillion and there was a push for a federal balanced budget amendment. In fact, the vote in the US Senate on the BBA fell just one vote shy of passage.

Imagine how different the fiscal trajectory of the country would have been… pic.twitter.com/Fqm41p2KDz

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 20, 2026

The question of course is where, if anywhere, do we go from here?

For decades, Americans have remained politically married to the spending commitments driving the country deeper into debt: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and an ever-expanding list of promises that elected officials know the country cannot afford. It has become close to political suicide even to suggest that these programs should be reformed, scaled back, or funded more responsibly, much less done away with altogether. Americans, rather, have continued to develop an ever-growing appetite for federal entitlements, while politicians have learned that promising more is far safer than admitting the country cannot afford what it has already promised.

With the nat’l debt nearing $40T, a major problem is states growing reliance on federal taxpayers.

Medicaid is the prime example.

With the perverse economics of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion + aggressive money laundering tactics, states have shifted large costs to Washington. pic.twitter.com/J6DGttgBq7

— Brian Blase (@brian_blase) August 19, 2026

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) represent this disease in its most concentrated form. Their answer to a nation drowning in obligations is to promise more still, from single-payer government-run healthcare, to expanded benefits, free social services, and a permanently larger state, without even discussing any plan for paying the bill beyond the slogan of “taxing the rich.” 

However, the underlying problem is older and broader than the DSA or modern politics. America’s economic history is a consistent record of politicians offering benefits today while postponing their costs until tomorrow, making promises about what government can provide rather than acknowledging that the best way to preserve prosperity is often to step aside and let the free market work its magic. A magic that Washington has constrained for decades, and one that has faced sustained political assault since the federal government’s rapid expansion in the early twentieth century.

The American Dream once rested on what an individual could build through work, sacrifice, and initiative. They could make a life, raise a family, and leave a mark on their community. Too often now, it seems to mean holding out long enough to begin collecting benefits promised by our ever expanding federal government.

Changing course will require more than one courageous politician. It will require voters willing to accept that there is no painless path out of a fiscal crisis built on decades of soon empty promises. Americans must be prepared to support leaders who seek to reform, phase out, and even abolish the entitlement programs that have become politically untouchable. That means, for the average American, the willingness to restore faith in self-reliance, savings, work, family, and community rather than permanent dependence on Washington.

Our future should not be beholden to the power of what government can provide us. Our success should not depend on whether politicians can continue borrowing and taxing to subsidize it. It should be determined by what free Americans are able to build, earn, save, invest, and pass on to the generations that follow.

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